The Best Low Calorie Ciders to Try
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May 14, 2020North of Concord and just at the Vermont border near Woodstock, you can come across the beautiful and scenic town of Lebanon, NH. Inside Lebanon, you can come across another gem, Farnum Hill Farmhouse Ciders. Farnum Hill has stayed true to hard cider production since they opened their orchard where they make their cider from real cider apples.
Farnum Hill’s Story
They are a mom and pop orchard and cidery owned and operated by Louisa Spencer and Stephen Wood. They have been growing apples on the same New Hampshire land since 1965.
Farnum Hill’s Ciders
Farnum offers descriptions for all of their ciders on their website. We’ve provided those descriptions below and our overall tasting experience. If you want to try their cider, you can purchase some through their cider shop.
FARNUM HILL EXTRA DRY (totally dry) 7.5% ABV
Gold, bubbly and radically dry. Aromas of myriad fruits of the earth, and the earth itself, precede a complex, palate-cleansing balance of fruit, astringency, and acid. Sugar content zero, fruit notes rampant! Delicious with homey summer flavors like potato salad and grilled food, and any hearty main-dish flavors. With Indian, Thai-, or Szechuan spices, Extra-Dry clears, and cools the palate, highlighting both cider and food. Food flavors will not lose out to Extra Dry’s clean profile, but will stand out more vividly against it.
FARNUM HILL EXTRA DRY STILL (totally dry) 7.5% ABV
Golden, clear, and radically dry. No fizz between you and full flavor fun! The profile parallels XD (above), but more of its fresh acidity and cheerful sting come from “sharp” apples such as Wickson or Esopus Spitzenberg. Dancing CO2 not needed for that zing! Recent tastings show growing preference for still ciders among our fellow Americans. But still ciders remain very rare in the States, because a still cider must taste orchard-great.
Notice our handy “bagnum,” which holds two bottles’ worth (and skips all that heavy glass!) Actually at the farm we’re sold out of the bottles for now. They’re standing tall in certain stores, though. In the NH liquor system just search “Farnum Hill” for listings of which ciders are stocked where. Outside NH it takes more determination.
FARNUM HILL “FARMHOUSE” (barely off-dry) 6.5% ABV
Our most casual cider, pale gold, bubbly, with a peep of sweetness amid tart, bitter, and fruity elements: citrus, pineapple, bittersweet apple, and a whiff of good barnyard funk. A clean, appetizing finish makes it congenial with food, from the snackiest to meatiest and whole-grainiest. ‘Farmhouse’ is a more rustic cider than our others, with less complexity, and a point less alcohol. It’s primarily blended from a group of real cider apples that ripen earlier than most. So for us it’s a bit easier to make, and for you more economical to buy.
FARNUM HILL Kingston Black Reserve, 8.5% ABV, SOLD OUT AT THE FARM
Cider enthusiasts tend to get excited about Kingston Black, one of the very few cider apples that makes a really good, complex, balanced cider all by itself. It’s an English apple that grows to perfection in our part of New Hampshire, but it’s a diva. A classic Kingston Black fermentation is rich in canteloupe, bitter orange, candle-wax, florals and mysterious hormonal notes, all framed by razor-like acid and broad, tea-like tannins, which is what happened with the sold-out 2015 Kingston Black batch.
Our Tasting of Farnum Hill Ciders
Each cider has a beautiful appearance, something you spend time more time looking at than others before taking a sip, but when you do take a sip, the cider continues to shine. The extra dry still and extra dry sparkling comes in at a surprising 7.5% ABV, and you wouldn’t know it. Each cider, sparkling or still, is smooth and crisp. Owner Stephen Wood warns you that if you don’t particularly enjoy dry ciders usually that this may not be the cider for you, which is understandable as I did not taste much sweetness,
but I found myself still loving every sip. It was a pleasure to taste them and a refresher to try something new as I am usually a person who leans towards sweeter ciders! Farnum Hill has been working hard to open the doors in the cider world to welcome dry ciders and we should embrace it.
The “perfect pour” is listed on each cider for those drinking as well, at 55 to 65 degrees. It is noted that one stays away from serving the cider ice cold. Discover more about Farnum Hill Cider.